Evolving landscapes impacted First Peoples’ early migration patterns into Australia

 

Peer-Reviewed Publication

 

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PREDICTED HUMAN PRESENCE ACROSS SAHUL 35,000 YEARS AGO, COMBINING BOTH NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN MIGRATION ENTRY POINTS.

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CREDIT: TRISTAN SALLES/NATURE

New research led by the University of Sydney offers fresh understanding of the migration patterns of Australia and New Guinea’s First Peoples, and where they lived in the 40,000 years following humanity’s arrival on the then combined continent.

Using a dynamic model charting the changing landscape, researchers have provided a more realistic description of the of the areas inhabited by the first humans to traverse Sahul: the landmass combining what is now Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea.

Led by Associate Professor Tristan Salles from the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney, the research model factors-in evolution of the landscape, driven by climate, during the time of human dispersal. This is a novel approach; previous studies of migration patterns have relied heavily on archaeological findings.

“One aspect overlooked when evaluating how people spread across the continent is the evolution of the Earth’s surface which took place as people migrated,” Associate Professor Salles said.

“Yet landscapes and landform are deeply engraved in Aboriginal culture.”

Humans first set foot on Sahul around 75,000 years ago. The research team used an established landscape evolution model detailing climatic evolution from 75,000 to 35,000 years ago. The model offers a fresh perspective on terrains and environments inhabited by the first hunter-gatherer communities as they traversed Sahul.

Researchers ran thousands of simulations to describe possible migration routes originating from two entry points into Sahul: a northern route through Western Papua and a southern route from the Timor Sea shelf.

Their results were consistent with previous findings, predicting a high likelihood of human occupation at already iconic archaeological sites such as: Ngarrabullgan Cave (in North Queensland), the Puritjarra rock shelter (Central Australia), and the Riwi Cave and Carpenter’s Gap 1 rock shelter in the Kimberley (Western Australia).

Results indicated migration speeds of between 360 metres and 1.15 kilometres a year, depending on entry points and arrival times. They also show that human settlers would have dispersed across the continental interior along river corridors on both sides of Lake Carpenteria.

“Our palaeoecological reconstructions show evidence of diverse interior habitats varying from high altitude tropical forest, subtropical savannah to semiarid woodland and grassland,” Associate Professor Salles said.  

Instead of finding well-defined migration routes (indicated by the grey lines on the below map), the research suggests a radiating wave of migration following rivers and coastlines. This correlates with known migration corridors: east of Lake Carpentaria following the Great Dividing Range; southern corridors connecting Lake Eyre to the eastern corridors; and the central super-highways transecting Australia’s arid interior.

Used in conjunction with mechanistic simulations, the findings could help evaluate how often a specific location is likely to have been visited.

“This could help identify new areas of archaeological interest as a precursor to more costly and time-consuming archaeological surveys,” Associate Professor Salles said.

RESEARCH

Salles, T. et al. ‘Physiography, foraging mobility and the first peopling of Sahul’. Nature Communications (Vol 15, 2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-47662-1

Revised dating of the Liujiang skeleton renews understanding of human occupation of China

Peer-Reviewed Publication

 

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LOCATION OF TONGTIANYAN CAVE (LIUJIANG) IN GUANGXI PROVINCE, SOUTHERN CHINA, TOGETHER WITH THE LOCATION OF OTHER KEY FOSSILS OF HOMO SAPIENS IN CHINA. FRONTAL VIEW OF THE LIUJIANG CRANIAL AND POSTCRANIAL ELEMENTS.

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CREDIT: SPRINGER NATURE

The emergence of Homo sapiens in Eastern Asia has long been a subject of intense research interest, with the scarcity of well-preserved and dated human fossils posing significant challenges.  

Tongtianyan cave, located in the Liujiang District of Liuzhou City, Southern China, has been a focal point of this research, housing one of the most significant fossil finds of Homo sapiens. However, the age of the fossils found within has been a matter of debate – until now. 

In a new international study in Nature Communications, with contributions by Griffith University, researchers have provided new age estimates and revised provenance information for the Liujiang human fossils, shedding light on the presence of Homo sapiens in the region.  

Using advanced dating techniques including U-series dating on human fossils, and radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence dating on fossil-bearing sediments, the study revealed new ages ranging from approximately 33,000 to 23,000 years ago. Previously, studies had reported ages of up to 227,000 years of age for the skeleton.  

“These revised age estimates align with dates from other human fossils in northern China, suggesting a geographically widespread presence of H. sapiens across Eastern Asia after 40,000 years ago,” said Professor Michael Petraglia, study co-author and Director of Griffith’s Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution. 

Dr Junyi Ge, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and lead author of the study, said: “This finding holds significant implications for understanding human dispersals and adaptations in the region. It challenges previous interpretations and provides insights into the occupation history of China.”

The Liujiang skeletal remains, discovered in 1958, have long been considered among the most significant human fossils from Eastern Asia.  

With their excellent preservation, the cranial, dental, and postcranial remains have been the subjects of extensive biological and morphological comparisons across Eurasia. 

Dr Qingfeng Shao, of the Nanjing Normal University added: “The findings of this study overturn earlier age estimates and palaeoanthropological interpretations, emphasising the need for robust dating methods and proper provenance documentation in the study of human evolution.”  

The study’s comprehensive dating analyses highlights the importance of accurate age estimates in advancing our understanding of modern human origins and dispersals. 

The study ‘New Late Pleistocene age for the Homo sapiens skeleton from Liujiang southern China’ has been published in Nature Communications. 

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6800 years ago: a long-distance cultural exchange between the Tibetan plateau and northern China

 The Tibetan plateau—the world’s highest and largest plateau—poses a challenge to the people who live there because of its extreme climate. In a new study, researchers have discovered stone artifacts that suggest that there were more cultural exchanges between those who lived on the plateau and those living on its perimeter.

“The Tibetan plateau has an average elevation of more than 4500 meters, which makes Colorado seem like it is at sea level. It’s amazing that people have been able to occupy this area on and off for at least the last 40,000 years,” said Stanley Ambrose (MME), a professor of anthropology. “Unfortunately, very little research has been done in this big area.”

The plateau covers roughly four times the size of Texas and the researchers were focused on the Holocene period, which began about 11,700 years ago. “Although the world was warmer and wetter, this high-altitude location was arid and largely grassy, making it a challenging place to live in.”

The researchers focused on a region of the plateau that supported a small human population due to its cold, dry climate and reduced oxygen levels. However, this area was prime grazing territory for yaks and gazelles. Previously it was believed that the residents developed unique strategies to survive, including making specialized stone tools and having unique genetic adaptations that helped them adapt to low oxygen conditions.

“These tools were ideal because they could be reconfigured easily for different purposes. They were flexible and versatile, allowing the owners to carry a bag of bladelets that could be then shaped within seconds,” Ambrose said. “Before that, everybody was running around with big knives and spears, which were durable and strong, but weren’t diverse.”

In the present study, the researchers excavated over 700 artifacts by digging through the surface and collecting them from different sedimentary layers. They then dated these tools using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry 14C to confirm their age and composition.

The researchers confirmed that the blades were from the middle-to-late Holocene. Intriguingly, they also discovered that the blades themselves were similar to the ones that had been developed in northern China, suggesting that there was a long-distance cultural exchange between the Tibetan plateau and northern China through the communities that lived on the plateau’s perimeter.

“These artifacts were created from geological materials that were located hundreds of kilometers away, suggesting that there were large social networks that were much bigger than the largest human hunter-gatherer ranges,” Ambrose said. “It also implies that these networks had long-distance interaction and communication.”

The researchers are now interested in expanding the size of the excavations to prove their hypothesis. “Although this is a very small excavation, there is enough to show that there were long-distance interactions. Now we need to look at larger areas and get more samples to see if we can go further back in time,” Ambrose said.

The study “The earliest microblade site 6800 years ago reveals broader social dimension than previous thought at the central high altitude Tibetan plateau” was published in Quaternary Science Reviews and can be found at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108551. It was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Fund of Shandong Province, and the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research program.

Ancient Maya blessed their ballcourts

 

Researchers find evidence of ceremonial offerings beneath ballcourt in Mexico

 

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UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI PROFESSOR DAVID LENTZ HOLDS UP A REPRODUCTION TILE FEATURING ANCIENT MAYA GLYPHS. RESEARCHERS DISCOVERED EVIDENCE OF CEREMONIAL OFFERINGS AT THE SITE OF AN ANCIENT MAYA BALLCOURT IN YAXNOHCAH, MEXICO.

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CREDIT: ANDREW HIGLEY

For sports fans, places like Fenway Park, Wembley Stadium or Wimbledon's Centre Court are practically hallowed ground.

Archaeologists at the University of Cincinnati found evidence of similar reverence at ballcourts built by the ancient Maya in Mexico.

Using environmental DNA analysis, researchers were able to identify a collection of plants used in ceremonial rituals in the ancient Maya city of Yaxnohcah. The plants, known for their religious associations and medicinal properties, were discovered beneath a plaza floor upon which a ballcourt was built.

Researchers said the ancient Maya likely made a ceremonial offering during the ballcourt’s construction.

“When they erected a new building, they asked the goodwill of the gods to protect the people inhabiting it,” UC Professor David Lentz said. “Some people call it an ensouling ritual, to get a blessing from and appease the gods.”

The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.

The research was carried out through Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History in collaboration with researchers from the University of Calgary, the Autonomous University of Campeche and the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Researchers from 2016 to 2022 worked at Yaxnohcah in Campeche about 9 miles north of the border of Guatemala, where they excavated a small area of a ballcourt.

The ancient Maya played several ball games, including pok-a-tok, which has rules similar to soccer and basketball. Players tried to get a ball through a ring or hoop on a wall.

UC Professor Emeritus Nicholas Dunning said when buildings were expanded or repurposed, as with the ballcourt, the ancient Maya made offerings to bless the site. Archaeologists sometimes find ceramics or jewelry in these offerings along with plants of cultural significance.

“We have known for years from ethnohistorical sources that the Maya also used perishable materials in these offerings, but it is almost impossible to find them archaeologically, which is what makes this discovery using eDNA so extraordinary,” Dunning said.

Ancient plant remains are rarely discovered in tropical climates, where they decompose quickly. But using environmental DNA, researchers were able to identify several types known for their ritual significance.

They discovered evidence of a morning glory called xtabentun, known for its hallucinogenic properties, lancewood, chili peppers and jool, the leaves of which were used to wrap ceremonial offerings.

Botanist and UC Associate Professor Eric Tepe said finding evidence of these plants together in the same tiny sediment sample is telling. He has studied modern plants in the same forests once traveled by the ancient Maya.

“I think the fact that these four plants which have a known cultural importance to the Maya were found in a concentrated sample tells us it was an intentional and purposeful collection under this platform,” Tepe said.

Researchers noted the challenge of trying to interpret a collection of plants through the opaque lens of 2,000 years of prehistory. But Lentz said the findings help add to the story of this sophisticated culture.

Researchers believe the ancient Maya devised water filtration systems and employed conservation-minded forestry practices. But they were helpless against years-long droughts and also are believed to have deforested vast tracts for agriculture.

“We see the yin and yang of human existence in the ancient Maya,” Lentz said. “To me that’s why they’re so fascinating.”

Forgotten city:” the identification of Dura-Europos’ neglected sister site in Syria

 

Peer-Reviewed Publication

The Dura-Europos site in modern-day Syria is famous for its exceptional state of preservation. Like Pompeii, this ancient city has yielded many great discoveries, and serves as a window into the world of the ancient Hellenistic, Parthian, and Roman periods. Yet despite the prominence of Dura-Europos in Near Eastern scholarship, there is another city, only some miles down the Euphrates river, that presents a long-neglected opportunity for study. A new paper in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, entitled "The Ancient City of Giddan/Eddana (Anqa, Iraq), the 'Forgotten Twin' of Dura-Europos," identifies the city of Anqa as a near mirror image of Dura-Europos, of the same size, comparable composition, and potentially equal value to scholars of the region.

Anqa is located just across the Syrian border from Dura-Europos, in the present-day Al-Qaim district of the Anbar Governorate in Iraq. Its remains include an identifying tell mound, at the northern end of the site, a polygonal inner wall circuit, and a large outer defensive wall, or enceinte. Situated at a point where the Euphrates floodplain drastically narrows, the city would have controlled movement between the populous section of the valley upstream and the trade route downstream linking Syria, Northern Mesopotamia, and Babylonia, giving it great strategic and economic significance. However, the site was ignored entirely by archaeologists until the 1850 publication of a British Middle Euphrates expedition survey. A more thorough study of the site was performed in the late 1930s by Aurel Stein, including aerial photographs of the standing structures, but even after these forays, there was little desire to learn more than the geographical location of this twin city to Dura-Europos.

One reason for the disparity in interest between Anqa and Dura-Europos, posits article author Simon James, is the history of British and French colonial intervention in the region. In 1920, as a result of the San Remo conference, Iraq was seized for British control, and Syria for French. As James writes, the “new political, military, and administrative boundary created a barrier to research and understanding of the earlier history of the region as a whole.” Yet while Dura-Europos and some other sites in Iraq and Syria have suffered from looting, destruction, and civilian death as a consequence of conflict in the region, Anqa has remained relatively untouched. As further archaeological inquiry is performed, Anqa may continue to provide valuable insight into the history of the Middle Euphrates. And furthermore, as methods of digital scholarship bring thinkers together “despite political borders,” the practice of studying sites like it may even, in the words of Simon James, help “address the consequences of colonialism in archaeology.”

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JOURNAL

Journal of Near Eastern Studies

DOI

10.1086/729226 

Humans occupied a lava tube in Saudi Arabia for thousands of years

Bones and artifacts indicate a timeline of herding and agriculture in northern Arabia

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

 

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RESEARCHERS EXPLORING THE UMM JIRSAN LAVA TUBE SYSTEM.

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CREDIT: PALAEODESERTS PROJECT, CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)

A large lava tube in Saudia Arabia provided valuable shelter for humans herding livestock over at least the past 7,000 years, according to a study published April 17, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Mathew Stewart of Griffith University, Brisbane and colleagues.

Research in northern Arabia over the last decade has highlighted a diverse Holocene archaeological record. However, the timing of human occupations and their connections with the nearby Levant remain poorly understood, primarily due to poor preservation of organic remains in the region’s arid conditions. To circumvent this problem, Stewart and colleagues focused investigations on caves and other underground settings where ancient materials are sheltered from sun, wind and high fluctuations in temperature. In this study, they analyze an archaeological site from a lava tube called Umm Jirsan located in the volcanic field of Harrat Khaybar in Saudi Arabia, approximately 125km north of Medina.

Within the lava tube are artifacts, rock art, and skeletal remains that document repeated human occupation over at least the past 7,000 years. The lava tube seems to have been an important resource for pastoralists keeping and herding livestock, as evidenced by rock art and animal bones representing domesticated sheep and goats. Isotopic analysis of human remains reveals an increase over time in C3 plants such as cereal and fruit in the diet, possibly linked to a rise in oasis agriculture in the Bronze Age.

The authors conclude that Umm Jirsan was likely not a permanent home, but instead a valuable stopping point for people traveling between oasis settlements. Lava tubes and other natural shelters were valuable resources for communities surviving in a challenging environment, and with further investigation, they present a key source of archaeological information about the history of human occupation in Arabia.

The authors add: “Exploring Arabia’s hidden past, our study uncovers millennia of human occupation within and around the Umm Jirsan lava tube, shedding light on ancient lifestyles and adaptations to environmental change in this harsh desert environment.”

The freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0299292

The resettlement history of the Iron-Age metropolis of Hazor in Israel

 

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DURING THE BRONZE AGE, HAZOR WAS ONE OF THE LARGEST CITIES IN THE REGION. THE SETTLEMENT MOUND IS LOCATED IN THE NORTH OF ISRAEL.

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CREDIT: MARYAM MATTA

The early origins of the Israelites are at the centre of a new research project at the University of Oldenburg, Germany. A team of researchers led by Hebrew Bible scholar and archaeologist Prof. Dr Benedikt Hensel will explore over a three-year period how one of the largest “megacities” of the Bronze Age in the eastern Mediterranean was abandoned and then resettled over centuries – and how the narratives about these events influenced the shaping of early Israelite identities.

The Gerda Henkel Foundation is providing around 400,000 euros in funding for the project, titled “Resettlement of Ruins and Memories in the Making – A Case Study on Hazor and the Shaping of Early Israelite Identities during the Iron Age”, as part of its “Lost Cities” programme. The international team of researchers based in Oldenburg will work closely with academics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel and the University of Regensburg.

The ruins of the ancient city of Hazor are located in northern Israel, north of the Sea of Galilee. Based on the archaeological findings the site was first settled about 5,000 years ago, in the Early Bronze Age. By the Middle and Late Bronze Age Hazor’s population had grown to between 10,000 and 15,000 people thanks to its strategic location at the crossroads of several trade routes, making it the largest city in the entire region. Various sources from this period, including letters and clay tablets from cities in Syria and Egypt with which the rulers of Hazor conducted trade, testify to the central role Hazor played as a trading hub and cultural melting pot for the entire Near East region.

At the end of the Bronze Age, around 1300 B.C., Hazor was destroyed and temporarily abandoned for unknown reasons. In the subsequent Iron Age, the site was repopulated, albeit on a much smaller scale. “Which culture the inhabitants of Hazor belonged to is something we don’t know for sure,” says Hensel. In addition to the archaeological findings, biblical texts have also served as a key source of information on Hazor. The Book of Joshua from the Old Testament, for instance, describes how the Israelites conquered Hazor, which was inhabited by Canaanites at the time. The historicity of these passages is, however, disputed among researchers, because the texts date from a much later period. “They are probably not directly connected to the resettlement of Hazor,” says Hensel, whose specialty is biblical archaeology.

The interdisciplinary research team is now examining the resettlement period in greater detail. Researchers from the fields of archaeology, social and cultural history, anthropology and Hebrew biblical studies plan to use the results to create a comprehensive overview of the cultural and ethnic transformations that took place in the area between the Euphrates and the Sinai Peninsula known as the Levant during the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age – and of how the identity of the early Israelites developed in the course of these upheavals.

Why did the new settlers avoid certain places in the abandoned city?

One of the project’s key objectives is to investigate the resettlement of the Bronze Age ruins during the Iron Age. The researchers aim to learn more about how the new settlers viewed and treated the remains of the destroyed buildings at the site and gain insights into their cultural and ethnic identity. “The new settlers seem to have deliberately avoided certain places in the city, such as the former temple district in the upper city, which would actually have been an ideal place to settle,” Hensel explains. The team plans to carry out further excavations to locate other sites with a similar history within the city complex.

A second objective of the project is the literary-historical and cultural-historical reconstruction of the accounts of Hazor and the Canaanites within the biblical tradition, and an examination of how these narratives are linked to the biblical imagination of Israel as an early tribal culture. “In the biblical narratives, Hazor is portrayed as the capital of the Canaanites. This image is for the most part artificial, but over the centuries during which the biblical texts were compiled it endured – even long after the settlement had been abandoned,” Hensel explains. “Hazor serves as a counter-image to the Israelites, shaping the identity of biblical Israel through literary means," he observes. The project team is investigating the potential historical anchor points of these identity-building processes.

Extensive archaeological excavations have been underway in Hazor since the 1990s. They are led by Professor Hensel and by Dr. Igor Kreimermann from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who is also involved in the current project. Oldenburg students also took part in the Hazor Excavations Project for the first time last year. The project funds will enable volunteers from Oldenburg to continue to participate in the archaeological work.